Earle

Cited as Earle. — 37 quotations

Backbone

We have now come to the backbone of our subject.

Bilingualism

The bilingualism of King's English.

Compound

When the word “bishopric” was first made, it was made as a compound.

Deflectionize

Deflectionized languages are said to be analytic.

Derival

The derival of e from a.

Dialect

In the midst of this Babel of dialects there suddenly appeared a standard English language.

Differentiate

The word then was differentiated into the two forms then and than.

Divest

The tendency of the language to divest itself of its gutturals.

Divorce

It [a word] was divorced from its old sense.

economy

The position which they [the verb and adjective] hold in the general economy of language.

Flectional

A flectional word is a phrase in the bud.

Fossilized

A fossilized sample of confused provincialism.

Habitat

This word has its habitat in Oxfordshire.

Have

The laws of philology have to be established by external comparison and induction.

Influential

A very influential Gascon prefix.

Influx

The general influx of Greek into modern languages.

Interjection

An interjection implies a meaning which it would require a whole grammatical sentence to expound, and it may be regarded as the rudiment of such a sentence. But it is a confusion of thought to rank it among the parts of speech.

Interjectional

Certain of the natural accompaniments of interjectional speech, such as gestures, grimaces, and gesticulations, are restrained by civilization.

Nounal

Verbs which in whole or in part have shed their old nounal coat.

Nowise

Others whose case is nowise different.

O

We should distinguish between the sign of the vocative and the emotional interjection, writing O for the former, and oh for the latter.

On

They have added the -en plural form on to an elder plural.

Orthographize

In the coalesced into ith, which modern reaction has orthographized to i' th'.

Orthography

When spelling no longer follows the pronunciation, but is hardened into orthography.

Overlive

The culture of Northumbria overlived the term of its political supermacy.

Participle

By a participle, [I understand] a verb in an adjectival aspect.

Presentive

How greatly the word “will” is felt to have lost presentive power in the last three centuries.

Pursue

Men hotly pursued after the objects of their ambition.

Ribald

Ribald was almost a class name in the feudal system . . . He was his patron's parasite, bulldog, and tool . . . It is not to be wondered at that the word rapidly became a synonym for everything ruffianly and brutal.

Sentience

An example of harmonious action between the intelligence and the sentiency of the mind.

Shibboleth

The th, with its twofold value, is . . . the shibboleth of foreigners.

Steep

The learned of the nation were steeped in Latin.

Sympathy

The adverb has most sympathy with the verb.

Symphytism

Some of the phrasal adverbs have assumed the form of single words, by that symphytism which naturally attaches these light elements to each other.

Umlauted

There is no natural connection between umlauted forms and plurality.

Wellhead

Our public-school and university life is a great wellhead of new and irresponsible words.

Yokefellow

The two languages [English and French] became yokefellows in a still more intimate manner.